Follow the launch of ESA’s Columbus space laboratory live at ESA and DLR

Atlantis is now scheduled to lift off from launch pad 39-A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida at 14:45 Eastern Standard Time (EST) / 20:45 Central European Time (CET).

Docking with the ISS is scheduled for Saturday 9 February at 12:23 EST (18:23 CET). Landing is currently slated to take place at KSC on Monday 18 February at 09:57 EST (15:57 CET).

Columbus is set to launch on board Space Shuttle Atlantis on 7 February
ESA’s Columbus laboratory is the most important European mission to the ISS to date and the cornerstone of Europe’s contribution to this international endeavour. Once Columbus has been launched, attached to the Space Station and verified, ESA will become an active partner in the operations and utilisation of mankind’s only permanent outpost in space.

Columbus will be transported into Earth orbit in the Shuttle’s cargo bay, pre-equipped with five internal racks. Two of its external experiment facilities will be stowed separately in the Shuttle’s cargo bay and attached to the outside of the laboratory module structure in orbit.

German ESA astronaut Hans Schlegel will play a key role in two of the three spacewalks or EVAs (Extra-Vehicular Activity) scheduled for the mission. During the mission’s first EVA, Schlegel will help to install and power up the laboratory.

During his extended stay on the ISS, French ESA astronaut Leopold Eyharts will play a key part in the installation, activation and in-orbit commissioning of Columbus and its experimental facilities.

Five racks will launch with Columbus
Once in orbit, Columbus will be monitored from ESA’s Columbus Control Centre located at DLR’s German Space Operations Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich.

For the launch of this milestone mission, ESA and the German Space Agency, DLR, are organising coverage of the launch at various centres. ESA experts as well as industry representatives will be on hand for interviews. See Press Accreditation form linked on the right.

The launch and the whole mission can also be followed on the web at: www.esa.int/columbus.

Media representatives wishing to follow the event at one of the locations listed below are requested to fill in the attached registration form (see accreditation form linked on the right) and fax it back to the place of their choice. The event can be followed live at the following locations:

Germany – Main launch event

Location: ESA Columbus Control Centre at DLR/GSOC
Oberpfaffenhofen
Address: Münchner Straße 20, 82234-Wessling, Germany
Opening hours: 19:30 – 21:30
Germany
Location: ESA/ESOC
Address: Robert-Bosch Strasse 5, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany
Opening hours: 20:15 – 21:00
Germany
Location: ESA/EAC
Address: Linder Höhe- D 51147 Cologne
Opening hours: 19:30 – 21:30
France
Location: ESA HQ
Address: 8/10, rue Mario Nikis – Paris 15, France
Opening hours: 19:30 – 21:30
The Netherlands
Location: ESA/ESTEC, Erasmus Centre
Address: Keplerlaan 3, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
Opening hours: 19.30 – 22.00
Italy
Location: ESA/ESRIN
Address: Via Galileo Galilei, Frascati (Rome), Italy
Opening hours: 19:30 – 21:30
Spain
Location: ESA/ESAC
Address: Camino bajo del Castillo, s/n Urbanización Villafranca del Castillo Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid
Opening hours: 19:30 – 21:30

For further information, please contact :

ESA Media Relations Office,
Communication Department
Tel: +33(0)1 53 69 7299
Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690